Happy News Thursday

Editor OGN Daily
7 hours ago
3 min read

Thursday's eclectic collection of short, upbeat news stories.

Southside Blooms

Hope and opportunity are blossoming in Chicago where a man is using flowers to help poor communities turn over a new leaf. Southside Blooms turns vacant lots on the city’s South Side into eco-friendly flower farms, employing local young people to grow, harvest, arrange, and sell flowers at his group’s nonprofit flower shop. Quilen Blackwell's Southside Blooms currently employs 25 people, primarily between the ages of 16 and 25, and will open a second location on the city’s west side this spring. Blackwell’s work has just earned him the CNN Hero of the Year Award at the 19th edition of the honor, organized by the cable news outlet with support from corporate sponsors. The award came with a handy $100,000 prize to support the project.

A first edition of Jane Austen's 'Emma' — Credit: Bonhams

First Edition of Emma

Of her six completed works, Emma was described by famed British writer Ronald Blythe as “the climax of Jane Austen’s genius and the Parthenon of fiction” - and a first edition is on the auction block today during the author’s 250th birthday week; expected to fetch up to $60,000. First printed in 1816, Austen’s final published novel is considered by many to be her masterpiece. It follows the life of Emma Woodhouse, who is described as “wealthy, clever, but spoilt,” and explores themes of social class, marriage, and women’s roles. The edition in the auction’s lot is split into three volumes, each with their own “half title” - a cover page for each volume - which Bonhams say is “a detail missing in most surviving copies, as these were often removed when owners had their books bound.”

First Editions of All Jane Austen's Novels Together: A new exhibition at the author’s home in the quintessentially English village of Chawton in Hampshire.

Craftsman making a wooden Christmas toy — Credit: Seiffen

Santa's Real Workshop

Forget elves in the north pole - Seiffen in Germany is home to Santa’s “real workshop”. The Toy Village (Spielzeugdorf) is a literal Christmas wonderland, where streets are lined with fairy lights and candlelight, and shopfronts displaying thousands of tiny figurines, all made from wood. For hundreds of years, Seiffen has been home to wood turners and carvers who create the classic wooden Christmas toys that are sold around the world. But how did this come about? The village was built in the 1300s to house silver and tin miners, but when the deposits had been depleted, miners were forced to find an alternative way to make a living - so they sourced timber, modified their machinery and began making wooden crockery before eventually turning to toys.

Illustration of the word 'slop' — Credit: @radarph_media

Word of the Year

Merriam-Webster has named "slop" as its 2025 Word of the Year, reflecting the widespread impact of generative artificial intelligence. The term refers to low-quality digital content, often produced in large quantities by AI, encompassing absurd videos, fake news, and junky AI-written books. The choice of "slop" suggests an increased public awareness of fake or shoddy content and a growing desire for genuine and authentic information.

LA is Coal-Free

The entire city of Los Angeles is now completely coal-free, as the city officially stopped receiving coal-powered electricity from its last remaining coal source. It’s a major milestone as the city aims to reach 100 percent clean energy by 2035. Almost two thirds of the city’s energy supply is now coming from renewable sources, including from one of the largest solar-plus-battery power plants in the nation. It’s a significant transformation from just two decades ago, when renewables provided about 3 percent of the city’s energy, and more than half came from coal.

Boston's Bikes

The City of Boston’s analysis shows a significant increase in bike trips alongside a modest decrease in motor vehicle traffic on streets where the city built new bikeways in 2024. The report found that bike traffic increased by an average of 84 percent on Boylston Street, where a new parking-protected bike lane was installed, while car traffic declined by 9-14 percent. Similar patterns were observed on other streets with new bike lanes, with double-digit growth in bike traffic and declines in car traffic.

"Summer friends will melt away like summer snows, but winter friends are friends forever." George R.R. Martin